An Unexpected Guest

Encounters 8-10 of The Orcs of Stonefang Pass

Previously, we learned that Stonefang is actually the name of a legendary Spirit Titan, trapped by the dwarves centuries ago inside the mountain, is about to escape, and that four fragments of the titan are required to keep it bound and two are still missing… So, the Forsite Irregulars head to the Citadel at a clearing in the center of the Iron Mountains. Itis overrun with Orcs, but is most likely where the remaining fragments are being held.

The Orc’s superior position, with archers on the outbuildings gives, them the jump on our allies, quickly wounding several.

But our heroes quickly negate the advantage and do some serious damage…

Visible on the roof of the Citadel is an Orc Shaman, dressed in unusually colorful robes and a bird mask. He is madly gesturing over some kind of statue or idol, which is hard for the party to make out from this distance…

The Goblin Trapsmith (Shute) runs ahead, abandoning the party who are mopping up the remaining Orc stragglers.

She’s got to see what that rainbow-colored plinth on the roof is all about – a lifetime of doubt turning over in her mind. Her companions quickly dispatch the stragglers and try to catch up.

Never Split the Party…

Shute decides to get closer by climbing a side-building, and the Bard Nostalgio leaps up next to her. She concludes that the Orc Shaman is summoning something she calls “The Phoenix Titan” and asks Nostalgio to toss her further up the cliff so she can tumble off and onto the roof – and he agrees – sending his Raven companion Scraw to accompany her with the command to “Protect!”

The rest of the team asks the Bard to then jump down and join them to fight their way up the stairs to the roof, effectively splitting the party.

At this point Shute takes a different path than the rest of the Irregulars – to follow the story from her view (and discover a lot about her back-story) see The Summoning. Or proceed from the parties’ point of view below. I’ll include that link again when they are all on the roof together if you’d rather follow the group…

Shute faces the Shaman alone…

And from this point on, the Irregulars have no idea how the amazing thing that they eventually encountered when the reach the roof happened…

But they enter the first floor and fight from floor to floor….

and rescue some dwarves…

And, as a result recover the remaining two fragments of Stonefang, but this all takes several minutes. A long time for Shute to be separated from her comrades. It is troublesome that she hasn’t already met up with them…

As our heroes finally make it to the roof, they find only the statue – no sign of Shute or the Orc Shaman or any corpses. only a gigantic Rainbow Phoenix plummeting from the sky directly toward them. Aquero calls out “Get ready to fight!”

“That’s no enemy! That’s our Shute!” – says Nostalgio, who intuit’s some deeper truth based on Scraw’s warnings to her master.

As the Rainbow Phoenix comes in to land on the roof, it fades away, and Shute stands in the place the titan would have arrived – ragged, disoriented, but very much alive.

“What is this sorcery?” The mercenary asks, but as the companions arrive, they agree to keep this transformation a secret, for now.

What Really Happened on the Roof?

If you haven’t already, you should read The Summoning to find out what really happened on the roof.

Why are the Orcs trying to release ancient mythological Spirit Titans? And how and why does Shute contain one?